Road Safety

Children are vulnerable road users. Anywhere where there is a potential for moving vehicles is a potentially dangerous traffic situation for children. This includes residential areas, car-parks, at traffic lights, along footpaths, zebra and other crossings, driveways, quiet streets, and busy streets. Children need assistance dealing with the traffic environment until at least the age of 10 as they are not equipped physically or developmentally to make the crucial decisions to keep them safe. Like learning to drive a car, children need practise and experience to walk in the traffic environment.

Although children may think they can handle crossing a road by themselves, remember that children:

  • are easily distracted and focus on only one aspect of what is happening
  • are smaller and harder for drivers to see
  • are less predictable than other pedestrians
  • cannot accurately judge the speed and distance of moving vehicles
  • cannot accurately predict the direction sounds are coming from
  • are unable to cope with sudden changes in traffic conditions
  • do not understand abstract ideas – such as road safety
  • are unable to identify safe places to cross the road
  • tend to act inconsistently in and around traffic

Many children below the age of 10 years do not have the capability or judgement to handle many pedestrian situations. Children need to be accompanied and closely supervised by a parent or adult carer to keep them safer.

For more information, please see KidsafeNSW.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *